Emergency Closing Info

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If there is inclement weather such as a blizzard or ice storm, an announcement will be posted on the DMACC.edu website. DMACC students, faculty and staff can also monitor the following
media announcements for possible college closing information.

You may also be notified of college closing information through the
DMACC ALERT system. Your DMACC email address and phone number has automatically been entered in the DMACC ALERT system. If you wish to also include your personal cell phone, land line or email address, you may do so by logging into
www.getrave.com/login/dmacc and adding these numbers and addresses.

Phone

Voicemail

Faculty and staff may access their voice mail box from home to hear a broadcast message if the college campus has been closed.

There are no exact guidelines for college closing in terms of inches of snow since many factors including time of day, total snow fall, wind, visibility, temperature, etc., all affect this decision.

DMACC gives very serious consideration to inclement weather and is committed to making decisions to close the college as soon as possible. We monitor weather conditions continuously in advance of winter storms and target making decision to close by 6:00 AM for day classes and 4:00 PM for evening classes. However, weather conditions can change very quickly for the worse or the better, and it may not always be possible to make a closing decision by these targeted times. Weather forecasts can be inaccurate in predicting the severity of winter storms. Consequently, the decision to close a campus is based more on actual weather conditions, current Doppler radar and immediate forecasts rather than on forecasts more than 4 hours in advance. We understand that individual circumstances such as health, childcare, rural roads, distance from college, etc. can vary greatly among students and staff. It is always our goal to provide safe learning conditions as well as provide students the opportunity to complete their classes on a timely basis. We want to provide the opportunity for students to attend. The final decision to attend college classes can only be made by the individual student based on their specific extenuating circumstances that may make it unsafe for them to travel. During adverse weather, the DMACC faculty is considerate of students who are unable to attend classes due to unique extenuating circumstances.

The Physical Plant Director will make the decision for closing day time classes for all college sites in Polk County (Ankeny, Urban, West, Transportation Institute, Southridge Center, and Capital Medical Office Building). All Polk County sites will close together. During evening and weekend classes, the Director of Evening Services will make the closing decision for Ankeny. The Provosts of the Boone, Carroll, and Newton campuses determine independently if college classes will be closed at their locations. If the Boone Campus closes, the Career Academy in Ames and Perry Career Academy will also close.

If a college campus closes, all classes and events occurring on that campus will be closed. Credit and non-credit classes held off campus will abide by the class location's decision to close.

If classes are canceled, employees and students should leave campus as soon as possible and/or should not come to the college. This allows for snow removal to take place more effectively. The exception is if your supervisor requests you to remain at work or to come in to work.

During adverse weather, local TV and radio stations are generally overwhelmed with school closing announcements. Consequently, these stations will only make abbreviated announcements for each organization and will not announce special events or other non-typical events at DMACC affected by the closing. Please inform all attendees of such special or non-traditional events of this policy so they can react appropriately during inclement weather.